Students overcome snow chains through creative means

Ropes, pizza box carts, parkour just some of many methods

Winter is fast approaching, and with the change in season comes the snow chain entrances restricting how students can enter different buildings. While the chains and snow make getting to classes even more challenging, some students have come up with creative solutions to get around this problem.

“I started getting pretty frustrated with having to enter through Vanier to get to my class in FSS,” said second-year history student Georgia Fortin. “Since I’m going to the second floor anyway I’ve asked my friends to start pulling me up by a rope through the window. I lost a lot of friends after that.”

While ropes are popular, some are looking at this as a chance to hone their talents, and perhaps pick up some new ones. “I’m learning how to parkour again so I can jump over the chains. I haven’t done parkour since I stopped watching The Office,” said Andy Scott a fourth-year management student.

As some students take a more individual approach, others are working together. A group of engineering students have spent weeks attempting to find a system of on-campus mass transportation. The hill from SITE is littered with their failures, but it doesn’t seem to have stopped their enthusiasm for the project.

The group’s first attempt was a hand pulled wooden car, with space for students to stand and ropes connecting it to various locations on campus. “Calling it wood may be going a bit too far, it was really just empty pizza boxes we held together with duct tape,” said second-year engineering student Ryan Martin. “Then when the ropes started to fall apart we used duct tape. Really, how good is duct tape?”

Faculty and administration at the U of O have had mixed views on the student’s efforts. While the snow chains started as an attempt to save on maintenance costs throughout the winter, the administration is now trying to put a positive spin on this cost-saving measure.

“We originally put the chains up because it’s a lot of work to shovel all those steps, and I have things to do in the morning,” said U of O president Jacques Frémont. “But now that students are doing all those fun little projects we’re trying to get to count towards credits, maybe start a course called Practical Winter Construction.”

However you choose to get into your buildings, do everyone on campus a favour and make it creative. The Tomato suggests some form of ice slide, but we’re too busy reporting on these things to make them ourselves.

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